Posts Tagged ‘nhtsa crash tests’

At a time when other manufacturers have been struggling to gain traction in a slow-growing battery car market, California start-up Tesla Motors has been exceeding even its own optimistic expectations with the big Model S sedan.

Offering a nearly 300-mile range with its optional 85 kilowatt-hour battery – three times more than most electric models – is one factor that appears to be boosting sales. But now, Tesla hopes there’ll be another reason for buyers to plug into the Model S, the maker crowing that it has just received the best federal crash test results of any vehicle ever.

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According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Tesla Model S received an overall five-star rating, as well as five stars in every individual test category. That’s something that only 1% of the vehicles NHTSA has tested have so far received. But the battery sedan also set a new record for the lowest likelihood for passenger injury ever achieved in the government tests. (more…)

The BMW 5-Series and the Hyundai Sonata were the only models awarded overall 5-star ratings by NHTSA under revised 2011 testing.

While it might seem like just about every carmaker and model, these days, is promoting a 5-star crash rating, things are about to get tougher – a lot tougher, as the industry is learning. Only two models from two makes have met the even more stringent 5-star target under the newly-revised federal safety evaluations.

For the coming 2011 model-year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is rating 55 new models, including 20 SUVs, 24 passenger cars, two vans and nine pickup trucks. So far, only two have been able to achieve an overall 5-star rating: the 2011 BMW 5-Series and the 2011 Hyundai Sonata.

That’s a potential significant advantage in a market that has become increasingly sensitive to safety-related issues where makers compete to show who has the most airbags and the latest computer-controlled safety systems.

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“The performance of the new 5 Series in these tough new tests reflects BMW’s long-held belief in a holistic approach to vehicle safety that places equal emphasis on active and passive safety,” Jim O’Donnell, President of BMW of North America, said in response to the NHTSA announcement.